Calabria and Mancherje Split Victories at St. Petersburg

A weather-affected opening race and a closely fought dry second contest produced a split of the overall wins in Chasing the Delta’s Week 2 doubleheader at St. Petersburg. Greg Calabria prevailed in a chaotic wet Race 1, while Justin Manchurje took Race 2 after overtaking early leader Josh King and controlling the remainder of the event

Race 1

Dale Marshall opened the evening with pole position in wet qualifying, leading a front row that also featured Greg Calabria. Jim Campbell and Jacob Green lined up directly behind. Rain remained a defining factor throughout the session.

Marshall made a clean start, but the race was transformed almost immediately by a major opening-lap incident in the tight early sector. The accident blocked much of the track and forced much of the field to a halt, dramatically reshaping the order. Calabria and Justin Mancherje emerged at the front, while several contenders lost substantial time or suffered race-compromising damage in the congestion behind. Marshall, who had started from pole, was among those shuffled down the order.

From there, Calabria delivered the cleanest run of the race. He steadily extended his advantage in worsening conditions and built a margin of more than 12 seconds while the order behind him continued to change through spins, damage and position battles. Joey Essinger worked forward to second, while Justin Mancherje, after losing time with mistakes during the middle stages, recovered to finish third. Gage Hyams also advanced strongly to take fourth after starting deeper in the field.

Further back, Joe Baratta briefly ran in podium contention before dropping to fifth, while Jim Campbell recovered to sixth. Jeremy Toste finished seventh, Steve Hill claimed eighth with a late pass on Michael Gonçalves, and Gonçalves and James Cox completed the top 10. Calabria’s victory was built on both track position and error-free execution in the most demanding conditions of the evening.

Race 2

Dry conditions for Race 2 produced a markedly different setup, and qualifying reflected it. Josh King secured pole by just 0.001 seconds over Justin Mancherje, with David Mancherje and Steve Hill on the second row. Essinger and Calabria lined up third row, followed by Campbell and Green, while Marshall and McNeil completed the top 10 on the grid.

Despite the improved weather, the second race again featured early disruption. McNeil spun on the opening lap but avoided major damage, while a separate multi-car incident soon after halted a large portion of the field and ended the race for several drivers. Up front, however, King converted pole into the lead, with Justin Mancherje closely shadowing him through the opening phase.

The battle for victory developed into a direct contest between the front-row starters. After several laps of sustained pressure, Justin Mancherje made the decisive move on King into Turn 1 and then began to edge away. David Mancherje ran strongly in third for a significant portion of the race, but his challenge ended with damage that brought him to pit lane. Later, King lost substantial time, but retained enough margin to remain second.

That left the fight for the final podium position as the focal point of the closing laps. Joe Berata held third under sustained pressure from Jeremy Toste and Joey Essinger, surviving a late challenge to secure the final podium spot. Justin Mancherje, meanwhile, completed the race untroubled at the front to seal the second victory of the doubleheader.

Event Summary

St. Petersburg delivered two distinctly different races across the doubleheader. Calabria mastered the wet-weather opening contest through consistency and control, while Justin Mancherje won the dry second race by converting sustained pressure into a decisive pass for the lead. Together, the two races produced a split of the overall honors and underlined how quickly conditions and race complexion could change over the course of the evening.